Tetramers ester enolates

Several ester enolates have also been examined by X-ray crystallography. The enolates of /-butyl propionate and /-butyl 3-methylpropionate were obtained as TMEDA solvates of enolate dimers. The enolate of methyl 3,3-dimethylbutanoate was obtained as a THF-solvated tetramer. 

Few ester enolate crystal structures have been described. The lack of structural information is no doubt due to the fact that the ester enolates undergo a-elimination reactions at or below room temperature. A good discussion of the temperatures at which lithium ester enolates undergo this elimination is presented in the same paper with the crystal structures of the lithium enolates derived from r-butyl propionate (163), r-butyl isobutyrate (164) and methyl 3,3-dimethylbutanoate (165). It is significant Aat two of the lithium ester enolates derived from (163) and (165) are both obtained with alkene geometry such that the alkyl group is trans to the enolate oxygen. It is also noteworthy that the two TMEDA-solvated enolates from (163) and (164) are dimeric, while the THF-solvated enolate from (165) exists as a tetramer. 

Numerous examples of the preparation of tetramic acids from N-acylated amino acid esters by a Dieckmann-type cyclocondensation have been reported (Entries 7-9, Table 15.4). Deprotonated 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds and unactivated amide enolates can be used as carbon nucleophiles. In most of these examples, the ester that acts as electrophile also links the substrate to the support, so that cyclization and cleavage from the support occur simultaneously. The preparation of five-membered cyclic imi-des is discussed in Section 13.8. 

Be this as it may, lithium attempts to bind to several bonding partners the structural consequences for the enolates of a ketone, an ester, and an amide are shown in Figure 13.2 In contrast to the usual notation, these enolates are not monomers at all The heteroatom that carries the negative charge in the enolate resonance form is an excellent bonding partner such that several of these heteroatoms are connected to every lithium atom. Lithium enolates often result in tetramers if they are crystallized in the absence of other lithium salts and in the absence of other suitable neutral donors. The lithium enolate of fert-butyl methyl ketone, for example, crystallizes from THF in the form shown in Figure 13.3. 

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